Title: Soul-Mates
Author: Raye
Email: [email protected]
Disclaimer: Joss owns them all
Distribution: The List and later on my site, Slayer's Hell
(http://fast.to/slayers_hell/) also, if anyone wants it then please
just
ask, and you shall receive...more circulation the better I say *grin*
Rating: R to NC-17
Feedback: Please please tell me what you think about it, I need to get
the courage up to post the rest.
Notes: Season 3 happened, Dru is still with the Chaos Demon and Willow
is taking a break from her relationship with Oz.  <VBEG>
Dedication:  to anyone who wants it

The Bronze

Spike was back.  Although he had done his very best to keep his promise
and stay away, he had been unable to.  Throughout
the drive down to get Dru he had been unable to think of anything but
that little red-headed witch friend of the Slayer, Willow
Rosenberg, he other half of his soul.

Willow walked into The Bronze, Oz and the rest of Dingoes Ate My Baby
were performing tonight, and even though they still
had a long way to go in repairing their relationship, he had asked her
to attend the gig for support.  She saw Cordelia standing
over at the bar, Jonathan standing beside her holding a cup of non-fat
latte.  She smiled at her, but Cordelia looked at her, and
then turned away, a look of horror on her face, there was still a long
way to go where Cordelia and forgiveness were
concerned.  Willow wiped a hand across her face, effectively hiding her
tears from anyone who tried to look.

“Come now, Pet.  Don’t let her get to you. She’s just jealous that her
wimp boy friend wanted you so much.”  Spike had
watched the scene from beneath the stairs, and had had to fight back
his
urge to go over to that spiteful bitch and wipe that evil
glare off her face.  He didn’t know why, but he didn’t like to see
Willow hurting.

“Spike!”  Willow backed away from the stairs, looking for the nearest
route of escape, should that become necessary.
“Wha….what are you doing here? I thought Buffy made it clear that you
were to leave!”  How she wished that Buffy weren’t
out with Giles for demon-torture-training right now.

“Pet, that’s not the way to greet your Soul-mate.”  He moved from under
the stairs, and walked over to her, aware that she was
trying to back away from him, but not giving her the chance.  His arm
stole around her shoulders, and he used that as leverage
to guide her to the privacy of a nearby alcove.

“Soul-mate?  What in heaven’s name are you talking about?  I’m not your
soul-mate!”  Willow looked completely confused,
and more than a little afraid.  He could see that he had said too much,
way too soon.

“I think that we need to talk.  There are a few things that I need to
tell you.  How about we go for a walk somewhere and have
a little chat, Luv.”  He pulled her closer to him as he felt her
tensing
up at his touch.  He needed her to get used to his touch, for
things to work as the Shaman had told him they would.

“I am not going anywhere with you, Spike.  In fact, I don’t even want
to
talk to you. Will you please leave me alone?”  She
shrugged her shoulders, dislodging his arm and moved away from him,
then
turned to leave the building, maybe it would have
been better if she hadn’t decided to come out in an effort to support
Oz.  Thinking of Oz she realised that she hadn’t seen him
since entering the building, maybe she should speak to him before
leaving.

Spike could see she wasn’t paying attention to him, and took advantage
of the time to stare at her, although when he realised what she was
looking at he had to fight back the urge to kill the little wolf-boy.
He knew that they weren’t together anymore, but that didn’t mean that
Willow didn’t feel anything for him any longer.  “Uhh, Willow, Pet.  We
really do need to talk.”  He tapped her lightly on the arm, and then
grabbed her by the wrist and dragged her towards the door.

“Spike, I don’t know what is wrong with you, but will you please leave
me alone.  I came here to sort things out with someone.”  He looked at
Willow as she again managed to escape from his grasp and began to walk
towards the stage, it was obvious that she wasn’t going to listen to
him
until she had managed to talk with Oz about the mess that they had both
made of their relationship.  Spike watched as Oz bent down with a grin
on his face when Willow tapped him lightly on his ankle.

“Willow, glad you could make it.  How’ve you been?”  Oz was happier
than
he would have liked to admit to see her.  He bent down, and then sat on
the edge of the stage, his legs swinging against the wood.  He wanted
to
touch her, but he couldn’t, he knew that they both needed time, and
although the last few weeks had been difficult for them, if they
survived this, they would be stronger.

“Fine, I really need to talk to you.  We have a problem.”  Willow
needed
to tell him that Spike was here, and that he was acting strangely, but
the minute those words were out of her mouth she knew that she had gone
about it in the wrong way.

Oz had been dreading this moment since he had seen her kissing Xander
in
the factory basement.  “You don’t need to tell me, Willow.  I
understand.  You have loved him for so…”

“Don’t be silly, Oz.  It is nothing at all to do with Xander.  It’s
Spike.  He’s here and talking some crap about soul-mates!”  She
shivered
to show the confused werewolf that she didn’t like the thought at all.

“Soul-whats?  Is he drunk again?”  Oz made a move to jump from the
stage, but he got no further than putting his hand on Willow’s shoulder
before his arm was grabbed and ripped away from her.  Oz turned and
growled at the intrusion, but almost backed away when he saw the fury
on
Spike’s face, his green eyes a glittery yellow.

“Stay away from her wolf-boy, she’s mine!”  He looked at Willow and
with
a slight tilt of his head signified that he wanted her to follow him to
somewhere where they could talk.  “Come on Willow, Luv.  I think that
we
need to have a little talk about what you just did.”  He grabbed her by
the arm, and pulled her towards him, securing her closely beside him,
as
though he were afraid that she would get away from him again.

“Spike, I don’t know quite what is wrong with you, but don’t you ever
get the message.  I don’t want to be anywhere near you.”  She tried to
escape from his grasp, but he was holding on to her arm so hard that
she
didn’t have much choice but to stay exactly where she was.  He didn’t
appear to want to let her go, as though he was afraid that she was
going
to run away from him.  “Spike, did you hear what I said?”

Cordelia couldn’t believe what she was seeing.  She shuddered as she
realised that Spike’s return didn’t mean anything good, but what made
her shudder even more was the realisation that Spike had his hands all
over Willow, and he didn’t appear to want to let her go.  Even though
Cordelia didn’t hold any fuzzy feelings towards Willow at this moment
but she also didn’t like the idea that maybe Willow wouldn’t get to
live
until tomorrow. She opened her mouth to shout out a warning to someone,
anyone who may be able to help when she saw Oz making his way over to
the bar, an expression of complete bafflement on his face.  “Hey, Oz,
what’s up with this picture?”  She had never been known for her tact.

“Oh, you mean Spike and Willow.  Yeah, I don’t quite know what is going
on there.  He is trying to get her to like him I think.”  He flicked
his
wrist, a $5 in his hand, he really felt the need to have something
stronger than a cappuccino, maybe he would go for full-fat choco-mocha
latte this time, or maybe not.  Maybe what he really needed was an
alcoholic beverage of some kind, something he wouldn’t be able to get
in
The Bronze.

“Huh? Colour me stupid, but trying to get her to like him?  What is
going on, Oz?  Aren’t you even going to try and stop him from taking
her
out of here?”  Cordelia knew that Buffy would absolutely freak out if
anything happened to her computer-geek best friend, and there was
nothing, except a game-face vamp that scared Cordelia more than Buffy
in
a pissed-off Slayer mood.

“I tried that, but boy, him pissed is something I don’t need.”  Oz gave
up trying to get attention from the bar, and started to walk away.  The
band were due to start a new set any moment, and Devon always got a bit
shitty before he was expected to perform, so maybe a caffeine high
wasn’t the best idea.

“Buffy’s gonna freak out, you know that, don’t you.”  Cordelia headed
for a quiet corner, and opened her purse, pulling her cell-phone from
its little pink leather case, and quickly dialling the number for the
library.

“H..hello?  Sunnydale High Library, how may I help you.”  Giles’
obviously felt as uncomfortable on the phone as he did on the computer,
but Cordelia didn’t have time to explain that he needed to sound more
confident.

“Giles, it’s Cordelia.  Is Buffy there?  I really need to talk to her.”
Cordelia didn’t consider that Giles might be the one person who could
actually help with the Spike Willow situation.

“Buffy’s just gone out on her rounds.  Is there anything that I can
help
you with, Cordelia?”  She could hear that he really wanted to get back
to whatever he had been doing, but she wasn’t about to let him off the
hook that easy, maybe he would be able to help her afterall.

“Something really strange is going on here, Giles.  Spike is back, and
he is with Willow.  He said something about Soul-mates.  Do you have
any
idea what is going on?”  In her normal Cordelia way she was speaking
way
too fast, and in a foreign language.  Sometimes Giles really wished
that
teenagers would learn to speak the Queen’s English, maybe then he
wouldn’t need a translator.

“Spike? Did you say that Spike is back?”  Buffy couldn’t believe what
she had just heard.  Spike was back even though he had promised that he
would stay away from Sunnydale.

“It’s okay, Giles.  Buffy’s here, she can help sort out the mystery of
Spike and Willow.”  She was just about to sever the connection when she
heard a squeal of, “SOUL-MATES?”  She pressed the button that easily
closed the line, and turned to look at Buffy.

“Oops, seems like Giles is having a fit.  So what did you say to him to
make him wig?”  Buffy kept on looking behind her at a man standing in
the shadows, possibly Angel.

“Spike’s back, and he appears to have a ‘thing’ for Willow.  He
mentioned something about Soul-mates, but you need to speak to Oz, he
was the one who nearly got eaten.”  Cordelia didn’t want anyone in her
old/new group of friends seeing her talking to the freakazoid, and she
really wanted to get away quickly.  “Anyhow, I really have to go,
Harmony’s over there, and I really need to speak to her about the party
next weekend…Oh! That’s right, you aren’t invited.”  She flounced away
from the corner, and almost tripped as she ran towards her old group of
cliquey friends, the ‘Snobs of Sunnydale’.

Buffy looked towards the stage and noticed that the Dingoes set had
nearly finished.  She really had to find out what was going on.
“Buffy,
did she say that Spike is back in town?”  Angel walked out of the
shadows and towards the Slayer where she stood cradling her coffee mug
in two hands, her face a blank as she tried to get over the shock of
what she had just heard.  “That can only mean trouble, Buffy, you know
that.”

“Something’s different though, Angel.  Cordelia said something about
really strange behaviour.  I need to speak to Giles.”  She almost ran
out of The Bronze and down the street to the library and her Watcher.
Giles would know what was going on, and if he didn’t then he would have
the time to find out.

**********
The Library

“Giles.  GILES!  Where are you?  We really need to talk.
Something is
going on. Again!”  Buffy sat down, she wasn’t quite
sure where to start looking in the library, so she decided
if she stayed

out in the open, Giles would come to her.  Sure enough, a
few moments after her yelling, Giles walked out of his
office and
grimaced.  He had an armful of books, and the one that he
was
reading was the one causing his concerned expression.

“We have big trouble, Buffy.  Willow could be in danger.”

“Not danger, Watcher.  Trouble.  Spike won’t like that he’s
bound to a
mortal, especially one with as many morals as Willow
has.”  Angel had followed slowly behind Buffy, watching her
back as she
had run completely unaware of any danger into the
library.  He knew that there would be some things not
mentioned in
Giles’ many books, and that maybe information that Angel
would have in his head.

“Tied?  What? Is this some kinky vampire thing?”  Buffy was
completely
confused, what was Angel talking about?

“No, Slayer.  I am tied to her.  We are bonded.”  Spike
walked into the
library, and stared at the three gathered round the
table.  “Come now, Pet.  Don’t you want to see your
friends, after all
it is going to be the last time for a while.” He pulled
Willow’s wrist and grinned at Buffy as she noticed the way
that his arms

possessively pulled her closer.

“Buffy, help me!”  Willow mouthed, she didn’t like this
situation, and
didn’t wish to be in it any longer.  “Spike, I think that
you
should try and explain exactly what you have been trying to
tell me, and

speak slowly.”  Willow tried to pull away from him so
that she could sit down, but he refused to let her go.
Eventually he
realised that she was feeling awkward, so he sat down in
one of the more comfortable library chairs, and pulled her
onto his
lap.  For some reason he didn’t want to be parted from her
for a moment, and although it confused him, he wasn’t going
to fight
against it.

“Well, Angel knows the history of us Vamps.  As my
Grand-sire has only
been too willing to point out in the past, we do have
some redeemable qualities.”  He grinned at Angel when his
Grand-sire
suddenly grimaced and his game-face appeared.

“Don’t push it, Junior, or I will personally stake you
where you sit.”
Angel couldn’t believe how funny these circumstances
were, but he also knew that if Spike pushed things too far,
Willow and
her whole family would suffer.

“I don’t like this anymore than you seem to, poof.  But
there is nothing

that can be done about it.  She’s mine, and I’m now
hers.  It is as it’s supposed to be.  As it has been
written.”  The gang

all looked at Spike, amazed that he had managed to
explain anything to them at all, but he was completely
unaware of their
attention, his eyes again studying his own fingers stroking
their way through Willow’s short bobbed hair.  Buffy felt
laughter
bubbling up in her throat, but after one look from her
Watcher
she swallowed the urge and went back to her serious face.

“I think that we need to do some research about this.
Willow, would you

mind doing the honours with the round robin?  Buffy,
you had better call Joyce and explain the situation.”  The
friends
watched in amusement as Willow slapped Spike’s hands away
and stood up, quickly moving to the phone on the checking
desk.  Buffy
moved to stand beside her friend, pretending that she
was using the phone, Willow tried to explain everything
that had
happened between her and Spike, starting with the incidents
in
the factory basement.

Spike wasn’t able to take his eyes off Willow, everything
she did was
fascinating to him, and he didn’t like the fact that she
was
so uncomfortable with him being close to her.  He wanted to
see her
smile at him in the way that she had earlier smiled at the
wolf-boy, before he had interrupted their conversation in
that little
club where he had first seen her.  “Spike, I think that you
and
I should go for a little walk, don’t you?  A chance to
catch up an’ all
that.”  Angel grabbed Spike by the collar of his red shirt
and dragged him towards the door.

“Uh…Angel, don’t be too long with Spike.  We need to get to
the bottom
of all this, and quickly.”  Giles couldn’t believe that
now two of the so-called ‘Scooby Gang’ had an involvement
with vampires
that had nothing to do with staking and dust, but he
intended to free Willow from this involvement as soon as
possible,
leaving her free to continue with a considerably less
complicated life.

“Buffy, what do you think I should do?  He keeps touching
me, and its
just ewww.”  Willow couldn’t think of a way to describe
the way his contact with her skin was making her feel,
except that it
was disgusting.  She wanted Oz, and the experience with
Xander had taught her that.

“I don’t know Willow, but I am sure Giles will find an
answer, he is
afterall the best research guy that we know, and he has all
these icky old books.”  Buffy hoped that this was the case.
She didn’t
like the idea that maybe Spike was right, and he was
destined to be with her best friend for as long as she
lived.  What
would happen if he decided that he needed her forever, and
changed her into one of them?  Would Buffy be able to kill
Willow?  Even

a vampire Willow?

“I hope you’re right, Buffy.  The idea of me with him is
just yuck.  Why

me?  First that Moloch, and now this!”  Willow didn’t
think that she would ever forget Moloch, the demon whom she
had fallen
in love with on the Internet who had actually wanted
to possess her for eternity.  In a way the situation with
Spike was very

similar.  Willow finished leaving a message on her
parent’s ansaphone, and then walked over to the central
table and began
routing through the many books that Giles had already
picked out of his collection that might help them with
their current
problem.  All Willow could hope for was a solution to
ending
this nasty situation.

“What do you think you’re playing at Spike?  Can’t you see
you’re not
wanted here?”  Angel was so tempted to just through
Spike against the wall and turn him into dust with the
stake he had been

keeping in his jacket pocket since Spike had returned
to Sunnydale the first time.  Instead of following his
instincts, Angel
continued to walk, knowing that there was something on his
childe’s mind that needed relief.

“I don’t know what’s happening, but for some reason I am so
drawn to
her.  She is the woman in my dreams, and nothing is
going to change that.”  Spike shoved his hands deep into
his duster
pockets and studied the ground at his feet.  A feeling that
he
hadn’t experienced in a long time was rising to the
surface: Guilt.
“She is nothing like anyone I have ever met.  Fire and Ice
together, and I want her so badly I want to take her away
and hide her
somewhere that no one can find her, or hurt her.”  He
took a deep and unneeded breath before looking at his
grandsire and
hoping that he would be getting anything but the stake that
he knew wasn’t too far from him.

“Spike, just leave.  Take your feelings, or whatever it is
you are
calling them, and get away from here before you really
begin to
piss Buffy off.  You really won’t like what she is capable
of.”  Angel
remembered the wound that she had inflicted upon him
before he had been sentenced to a life of torture in Hell,
and she had
supposedly been in love with him.

“Don’t you understand?  I can’t leave here, unless she is
with me.  If I

do I’ll wither away to nothing.”

“EWWWW….that’s just so gross….It says here that if you
stake a chaos
demon all their chaos comes out in spews of grey
and green puss.  Don’t you just think that’s gross?”  Buffy
was supposed

to be helping Giles and Willow progress in their
research, but all she was managing to do was distract them
with all the
information that really wasn’t much help to them.

“Buffy, we don’t need to know that.  We need to find a way
to help
Willow with her Spike problem.”  Giles looked up from his
book for a mere second, and then returned to his research
mode.

“Yeah, but if we kill a Chaos Demon maybe ol’ Spike will
return to his
Psycho Ho!”  Buffy was sure that this was the answer to
their prayers, she didn’t like to admit that she had no
understanding at

all of the problem that they were currently experiencing.

“Slayer, that won’t get rid of me.  Red an’ me are
bonded…Soul-mates…we’re supposed to be together.”  Spike
walked up
behind Willow and, pulling a chair with him settled to sit
beside her,
his fingers again tangled in her hair.  For some reason
that
he was unable to explain he was fascinated with her hair,
it’s colour,
texture and style.  She was so beautiful, and she didn’t
appear to be aware of her appeal at all.

“Spike, will you please stop playing with my hair.  It is
really bugging

me.”  She shuffled her chair a little further away from
him,
but when he followed her, moving even closer this time, she
realised
that there was no point in trying to get away from him, so
she sighed and attempted to ignore him whilst continuing in
her
research.

“I don’t want to be too far from you, Luv.”  He stroked his
hand along
her cheek, careful not to touch her too heavily with his
rather sharp nails, and then continued to braid her hair.

Angel couldn’t believe what he was seeing.  After the
conversation that
he had had with Spike, which admittedly been rather
one sided – Angel doing all the talking, and Spike
listening – he knew
that Spike wasn’t going to hurt Willow, even though he
was really pissed at being ‘bonded’ to a mortal.  Spike was
being so
gentle with Willow, he was touching her so softly, as
though he really cared about her, and was concerned about
not hurting
her.

“Oh dear God.  We are in trouble.  Willow, I really think
that you
should read this.  It doesn’t look too good.”  Giles took
his
glasses off and rubbed the bridge of his nose, he really
couldn’t see
any way out of this situation.

“One of the light to be one of the dark, one of the day to
be one with
the night.  Bonded forever and never to part.
Innocence and evil together will live until one dies and
another is
saved.”

“What does this mean, Giles.  I don’t understand.  I am
light, and day,
and innocence, and Spike is definitely evil, but what does
the rest mean?”  For once in her relatively short life
Willow was
completely confused.  Part of the prophecy – if it could be
called that – was very clear, but the rest of it was vague,
even by
HellMouth standards.

“Perhaps I can find something in another book.  At least we
have found
something, although this may not even be it.”  Willow
nodded at this, hoping that this wasn’t the prophecy that
referred to
her and Spike at all.  She would much rather that the
explanation was simpler than this one.

“So we carry on looking then!”  Willow had already started
to leaf
through the next book in her pile, as had Giles.  Buffy was
way too busy looking at Spike, and the way that he was
acting so
obsessed over her best friend, it was just so strange.
Then
again though, strange activity was something that had
become the norm
since she had moved to Sunnydale, home of many
vampires and the base of the ever so friendly HellMouth.

“Buffy are you actually going to read those books, or do
you have some
strange plans for them later that you aren’t telling us
about?”  Giles had already finished his pile of books.  He
had found
nothing else to explain Spike’s insistence that he and
Willow were bonded, but he was sure that there had to be
some logical
reason for it, and it was for this purpose that he was
going to continue looking.

Spike was beginning to feel a little guilty.  He was being
very unfair
to the Slayer and her friends, even to Willow. He had the
answer to their problems on a slip of paper in his duster
pocket, but he

wanted to see if any more information could be
discovered about the situation before he helped them, even
a little.  He

needed to know if there was any other reason behind it
other than the one that the Shaman had given him, but more
importantly
he needed to give Willow this time to get used to him,
before the changes started occurring in both her and
himself.

Angel noticed the way in which Spike suddenly became
self-conscious, and

the guilty look returned to his face, but he didn’t
connect either action with what happened next.

“Watcher.  I have some information that might help you.”
Spike took the

piece of paper out of his pocket and handed it across
the table into Giles’ waiting hand, ensuring that his hand
was able to
stroke across Willow’s cheek before he put it back on the
table beside hers.

“Uhh….thank you, Spike.  Well, the search is over.  We have
our reason
right here.”  Giles couldn’t believe that the answer
had been that easy.  He should have seen it right away,
instead of
looking through all these books, where he would never be
able to find the answer, not if he searched for weeks.
“Willow, it
seems that you were destined to be with Spike, from the day
that you were born….Only the body that he is in, isn’t the
body that you

were supposed to meet him in.  You and he were
always destined to be together.  Now that you have found
each other, you

are to uh….mate and he will become human. Am I
reading this correctly?  This seems a rather odd
situation.”

“You are reading correctly, Watcher.  I am to become a
human.  Ironic
really.  After two hundred years of feeding off them,
and using them for play and seduction, I am again to become
a weak human

with no eternity.”  Spike didn’t like this situation
one bit.  The only way that he could prevent any of it
happening would
be to kill Willow, but them he would also die, that was
another part of the prediction that Giles hadn’t read out.
He was
unable to kill her, and she would not be able to kill him,
although he could die at the hands of another, and Willow
wouldn’t
suffer for it.

“Is there a way out of it, Giles?  Please tell me that
there is!”
Willow thought that she was going to be sick.  She was
supposed
to have sex with this….this demon, and she would be stuck
with him
forever.  What about Oz?  What about Xander?  Oh
Goddess, when had her life suddenly been taken out of her
control?

“I don’t like it anymore than you do, Pet.  But as the
Watcher said, it
is what is meant to be.  It is what was always supposed to
happen.  I am yours, and you…are mine!”  He tried not to
grin when he
saw Willow’s hands clench in anger, and her eyes
moved to look at the stake that Buffy had been playing
with, and had now

placed on the table.  “You can’t kill me, Willow.
And I can’t kill you.  Face it, Luv.  We’re stuck with each
other.”
Spike lifted Willow out of her chair and onto his lap where
he had easy access to the pulse at her throat, and could
feel her
squirming in his lap, her movements readying him for what
had
to happen later in order to prepare them for the next stage
in their
lives. “You are a virgin, aren’t you, Pet?”  he whispered
in her
ear before nipping at her lobe gently with his teeth.  “You
didn’t go
and give what’s mine to the little wimp or wolf-boy.  Did
you?”  He could feel by the way that she struggled against
him that he
didn’t have much to worry about.  She was still a virgin,
and that wouldn’t change until he took her to his bed, or
rather their
bed, in the hotel room he was currently renting.  He knew
that eventually he would have to get somewhere else, but
for now a room
at the Sunnydale Inn was perfect.

“It has nothing to do with you, Spike.  But no, I haven’t
slept with
Xander, or Oz.  But I won’t be sleeping with you either.”
She pushed his arms away, only for them to move further up
her body so
that his hands were almost cupping her firm breasts.

“You’re right, you won’t be sleeping when you share my
bed….Tonight!”
He didn’t want to scare her, but he had to make it
clear that neither of them had much choice in the matter.
He had to
fuck her.

“Tonight?  Why does it have to be tonight?  Tomorrow would
be good!  Or
maybe next week sometime.”  She was completely
unable to hide her fear of him, and what they had to do.

“Tonight, Willow.  I want to be with you tonight.”  He
couldn’t hold
back a groan as she rubbed her ass against his erection,
causing almost enough friction to send him toppling right
over the edge
into an embarrassing climax in front of his grandsire, the
Slayer and her Watcher.  “Please stop wriggling.  It is
becoming rather
uncomfortable from where I’m sitting.”  He moved his
hands down her body and grabbed her hips, forcing her to
stay completely

still.  He didn’t think that he would be able to cope
for more than a few more moments with her moving on him as
she had been.

“Sorry!”  She began to blush as she felt him arch his hips
slightly
showing her what her movements were causing him to feel.
She looked round at him and was about to say something to
him when he
moved his head forward slightly and his lips brushed
against hers lightly, then exerting more pressure when she
didn’t show
any signs of attempting to move away.  Her hands moved
to grip his shoulders and her nails sank into the exposed
skin between
his neck and shoulder.  Spike bit back a groan as the kiss
continued, and she still showed no signs of feeling any
fear at their
close contact.

“God guys, get a room!”  Cordelia had just walked into the
room and
although the others were staring in amazement at the
couple sitting kissing in the chair, she didn’t think that
she should be

quiet,  “ewww, Willow…Gross much?  How could you
kiss Peroxide Boy?”  She had halted just inside the
doorway, and was
almost pushed to the ground when Xander rushed into
the library and came to an abrupt halt, his expression full
of hurt and
shock when he noticed his best friend literally sucking
face
with another vampire.

“Oh Goddess…What have I done?”  Willow pushed away from
Spike, stood up
and rushed out of the library, she didn’t know
how she could face any of her friends after what they had
just witnessed

her doing.  She had been kissing Spike, Peroxide Boy,
Dead Boy Junior!!! What had gotten into her?  She walked
towards the
only bench outside the library window, she really
needed to take some time out to herself.  She was so deep
into her
thoughts that she didn’t notice as someone walked passed
and then sat down beside her.

“Willow, I think that you need to talk about this with
someone.  I
suppose that I am as good a person, or rather vampire as
anyone.”  Willow looked up into the dark brown sympathetic
eyes of
Angel, she could see that he meant what he said, but she
didn’t really feel like talking to anyone about what was
happening in
her life until she understood it better.

“I can’t talk to anyone.  I don’t understand what’s
happening.  Why
isn’t life simple anymore?”  Willow buried her face in her
hands, and didn’t notice the way that Angel suddenly tensed
up and put
his arm defensively round her shoulders, pulling her
closer to his firm body.

“Get away from her, you wanker.  She’s mine.”  Spike didn’t
like the way

that Angel had moved so close to Willow, and even
more he didn’t like the fact that she was accepting his
touch and moving

closer to him as though she trusted him more than
anyone.

“Spike, this isn’t what you think…you know how I feel about
Buffy.”

“Ahh, the Slayer.  I was right, you are a whipped puppy.
Vampires like
you make me want to puke.”  Spike moved towards
the couple sitting on the bench, and almost shoved Angel
away from
Willow.  His anger at the fact she was even touching his
grand-sire, a vampire he made no effort to hide his hate
for made him
madder than Drusilla ever had.  “Stay away from my
mate, Angel.  I don’t want to see you touching her ever
again.”  He put
his arms around Willow’s shoulders and pulled her so
that she was sitting on his lap, her face buried in the
crook of his
neck, her tears soaking the collar of his shirt.
“Pet…Luv…don’t cry….You know that I would never do anything
to hurt
you…I can’t!”  He hated it when women cried,
although he had to admit he hated it more when a grown man
cried,
begging for him to not kill him as a meal.

“Spike, why did this have to happen?  Things were just
starting to work
out.  Oz and I, we were working out all our
problems.”  Willow had stopped crying and was again sitting
beside him,
she was studying the way that the light from the large
windows fragmented before it hit the ground in a series of
rainbow
colours.

“You have to forget about Oz, Pet.  You are promised to me.
I think
that we really need to go back and see what the Watcher
has to say about all this.”  He stood up and put his hand
out for her,
hoping that she would trust him enough to take what he was
offering her.  He almost sighed in relief when she placed
her small hand

in his and allowed him to pull her to her feet.

“We may as well go and face the music.  I am sure that
Buffy has plenty
to say, and from the look on Xander’s face he will have
more than a few questions on his little mind.”  At the way
that Willow
spoke, Spike had to force back the laughter that was
building in his chest.  He too had seen the looks on
everyone’s faces,
and knew that he would be in for more than just a few
questions when he returned to the library.

“Well, isn’t there something that can be done about all
this.  I mean,
Spike and Willow, our Willow?  This is just too gross!”
Xander was pacing the library, but when he discovered that
he was unable

to keep up with the speed in which Buffy was also
pacing, her sparkling energy close to the surface, her
anger not close
behind.

“What is going on here, Giles?  There has to be a reason
for all of
this, and you have to find it.”  Buffy was afraid for
Willow
and scared that things were going to go awry and Willow
would be hurt.
“Why Willow?”

“Yes, well, according to the information that Spike gave
me, they have
been bonded since Willow first walked the earth as a
human.  They were always supposed to be together, but
things changed
when Angelus made him a vampire.  Now fate has
stepped in to equal things out.  They have to join to make
things right
again.”  Giles hoped that his explanation was easy enough
for his not overly bright Slayer and her sometime dumb
friend to
understand.

“So you are saying that they are supposed to get it on
together and then

things will go back to normal?”  Xander thought that he
could understand what was going on, but it wasn’t quite
that simple.

“Almost, Xander…..He will become a human, no more Spike, no
more William

the Bloody, he will become what he was
always meant to be.”

“That’s right, Watcher.  Human, as I haven’t been for more
than 2
centuries.  I must say, it will be quite a change.”  The
couple
watched as Willow’s friends turned to stare at them as they
walked into
the building.  Spike was beginning to see the funny side
of all this.  Initially he had been more than just a little
pissed off
at what he had been told, but now he was beginning to
realise
that things would only be as bad as he made them.

“Uhh, just how old were you when you were changed, Spike?”
Buffy
wondered if things would be different.  She wondered
how people like herself, Xander and Cordelia would react if
it turned
out that he would be in their classes at Sunnydale.

“I was just 18, I think, when I met up with Angelus and
Drusilla all
that time ago.  So I guess that means I will have to go
back
to school!  Oh well!!!”  he shrugged his shoulders and then
bent towards

Willow and whispered something in her ear that
caused a small giggle to escape from her slightly open
lips.

“Is it just me guys? Or is this really wigging you out?”
Buffy could se

the way that Spike only took his eyes from Willow when
he was answering a question.  Even though she didn’t want
to admit it,
they looked really good together, his pale skin and white
blond hair looked good against the pale blush of her skin,
and the dark
almost blood red of her friend’s hair.

“Nope, not just you, Buffster.  I don’t know why, but they
do look
rather good together, or is it just me?” Xander didn’t
realise
that he had just said out loud what the rest of the room
had been
thinking since the couple had returned to the library.

“Uh, guys, would you mind explaining what is going on in
here?”  Willow
was completely baffled by the scene in the library, and
more than just a little shocked at what she had just heard
Xander say.
How could her best friend even think that about her and
this vampire/man?

“Willow, we haven’t been able to find anything else, but
the information

that Spike gave us was more than just a little helpful.  It
seems that all you need to do is sleep with him and
everything will sort

itself out.”  Giles pushed his glasses up the bridge of his
nose, and then settled down in his chair at the head of the
table, in
front of the laptop that Willow always brought to the
library
when research needed doing.  He wondered for a moment if he
would be
able to find any answers on the infernal machine, but
shuddered at the thought of looking through anything other
than a book.

“Do you want me to see if anyone online has any answers,
Giles?  It
wouldn’t hurt to see if anyone else has any knowledge of
this soul-mate principle thingy!”  Willow moved away from
Spike again,
this time feeling a loss that hadn’t been there before
when she left his side.

“That might be a good idea, I was just thinking about that
myself.”  He
shifted out of the seat, and watched over her shoulder as
she settled into her familiar role as Net Girl.  She logged
onto the
internet quickly and immediately began to key in words that
might help in her search.

“Luv, that’s Soul-mate, hyphenated, not one word all
written together
like that.”  Spike had always been curious about the
intelligence base behind the Slayer, she had always been
prepared for
the various attacks, and now he knew why.  Willow and
Giles were the knowledge base behind the Slayer, their
remarkable
intelligence and amazing determination helped to provide
her
with information that would otherwise be rather difficult
to get hold
of.

“Thanks, Spike.  Is there any other information that you
can give me to
help with this search?”  Willow wanted to get as much
information as possible.  She needed to find out everything
that she
could, as quickly as she could.

“Well, I am sure that it wouldn’t be under Virgin
Sacrifice, but look up

evil and purity and you might be lucky.”  He hoped that
she would find something, just as long as it wasn’t
something that gave
them a way out.  For some reason that he was
completely unable to explain he really wanted to make out
with this
girl, this little hacker, and a little bit of him was even
looking
forward to again being human.

“Great, only 6 results to that search.  Maybe there will be
an answer
here somewhere.”  Willow was more than a little happy at
the results that her searches had turned up.  Spike moved
to again look
over her shoulder at her exclamation of shock and
surprise.  She was more than just beautiful when she was
doing what she
enjoyed, even if that didn’t include paying attention to
him.  She tapped a few more keys on the keyboard in front
of her, and
then made an exclamation that could almost pass for a
word that ensured she had the attention of everyone in the
library.

“Willow, what is it?  Not something too nasty I hope?”
Buffy put her
hand over her mouth when she noticed the horrified look
on her best friends’ face.

“Worse than that.  Much worse.  From what I can tell, there
is no way at

all that we can get out of this situation.  We just have
to go with it.”  She looked down at her hands for a moment.
Wondering
what kind of fate the Gods had in mind for her, and
why they had picked her to do this with Spike.  For so long
things
hadn’t been going right, then she had met Oz, and the love
of
her life had begun to pay attention to her, even though he
was with
Cordelia, and then Spike had returned to Sunnydale and
things had begun to go wrong again.  Willow wondered why
these things
continued to go wrong for her, she wondered who had
it in for her, the only problem was, she didn’t have anyone
to ask.

Spike could tell that she wasn’t happy with the situation,
but he had
never believed that he was that bad a person.  He knew
that he had never been the best of friends with the people
gathered in
the library, but that didn’t mean that he would cause them
harm now. Hadn’t he been the one that had helped the Slayer
to defeat
Angelus at the mansion, and he hadn’t really hurt
Willow and the wuss when he had kidnapped them.  “Willow,
things aren’t
that bad, Luv.  I promise that I will do my best to
make this hurt as little as possible.  I don’t want to hurt
you at
all.”  He put his hands on her shoulders and squeezed them
tightly, trying to reassure her that he meant everything
that he was
saying to her.

“Why did it have to be me?  Couldn’t you just go back and
sleep with
Cordelia, that would surely do the same, she’s a mortal
too (although only just!).” She spoke the last quietly
under her breath
so that Xander couldn’t hear what she was saying, she
knew that her best bud was still sore that the prom queen
had dumped him

and was now onto pastures new, whilst he was
again alone.

“Sorry, Willow, you are the only one it will work with.
What I don’t
quite understand is why Spike actually wants to go ahead
with it.”  Giles was the one who spoke now, he could see
that Willow was

afraid, and although his words wouldn’t actually rid
her of her fears, they might do their best to calm her
somewhat.

“Okay.  So Spike, when do you want to do this.”  She could
hear the
movement behind her and Spike almost stumbled, was it
in relief, or fear of what was to come.  She wanted to do
this in the
right way, she wanted to help Buffy rid the HellMouth of
all
demons and monsters, and knew that this would probably be
one of the
only ways she would have any effect, but that didn’t
mean she had to like it at all.

“Tonight, as I said, tonight would be good.”  He could hear
the slight
tremor in his voice, and didn’t like it one bit.  He didn’t
understand what had suddenly changed Willow from the shy
little girl
into a decisive and positive woman, who just wanted to
get this over and done with.  He hoped that things would
happen
quickly.  He didn’t know why, but he was sure that if it
didn’t
then she would run away from him, and he would be forever
cursed with
wanting her and never having her, and having to wait
until she was next reborn.  “I promise, I won’t hurt you,
Willow.  I
would die before I would let that happen.”  He touched the
back of her hands and then pressed a kiss lightly on the
back of her
exposed neck.  He could almost taste the blood as it
flowed around her body, but that would come later.  If all
worked out as

intended, when he woke tomorrow he would be a
human, and perfectly capable of romancing Willow in the way
that most
girls enjoyed.

Willow couldn’t quite explain her emotions, although she
really wanted
to.  When he had pressed that kiss to her neck she had
wanted to turn around and give him better access – to her
mouth.  She
was confused at what he was making her feel, and
wished that there were someone she could talk to about it
all.  Things
were happening so quickly.  Just this evening Willow had
been on the verge of making up with Oz.  She so wanted to
make things
better with him, she didn’t want to lose him because of
one stupid incident.  Now she knew that she was going to
lose him.  Why
hadn’t she slept with him when she had had the
chance?  Now she was going to lose her virginity to a
vampire, and not
just any vampire, but Spike!

Buffy could see the confusion and pain on Willow’s face,
but she didn’t
have any idea how to take the pain away.  She had
never been in this situation.  Granted, she had lost her
virginity to a
vampire, but he had been the man she was in love with, and
still was – but there was nothing she could do about that
now – she
needed to talk with Willow.  She walked over to her friend
and tapped her on the shoulder, pushing Spike out of the
way at the same

time. “Willow, let’s go outside and talk for a bit.  You
look like you could do with a break.”  She pulled Willow up
by the
wrists and then dragged her towards the stacks, where she
could be sure that they would be able to talk without being
overheard,
even by big nosy vampire ears.

“So, what is it you want to say, Buffy?”  For some reason
Willow had
decided to place the blame on Buffy, afterall, if it
weren’t
for her being Buffy’s friend then she may never have been
put in this
situation in the first place.

“I wanted to talk to you about all this.  I know that you
don’t want to
do this, but you have to look at it in a realistic way…once
you have slept with him he will be one less vampire to deal
with on the
HellMouth.  He seems to care about you, although it is
strange that he is even volunteering to become a human when
he appears
to hate the state so much.”  Buffy could almost see the
wheels turning in her friend’s mind, but she didn’t want to
give her too

much time to think.

“Yes, but what about Oz?  I love him, and I think that he
loves me too.
I don’t want to hurt him, and I think that this will count
as hurting…Don’t you?”  Willow’s first thought when Spike
had spoken to
her in The Bronze had been Oz, and now he was
her last thought before she went and made out with another
supernatural
being.

“If it’s any consolation, vampires have great endurance.
They are great

in bed.”  Buffy flushed as she said this, and then had to
bite back a giggle as her friend looked up in curious
fascination.

“Really?  What am I saying?  I love Oz, I wanted my first
time to be
with him, not with some g..vampire who wanted me dead a
few months ago.”  She began to pace, fully aware that the
said vampire
was waiting in the main part of the library for her to
return to him so they could get this thing in motion.

“Yes, but now that isn’t going to happen.  Maybe if you
explain it all
to him, or better still, get Giles to explain it to him, he
will
forgive you.  You don’t have any choice about sleeping with
Spike, it is

fated, and you know what fated means on the
HellMouth.”  Buffy could see that Willow was on the verge
of tears, so
she hugged her friend for a moment, and then guided her
back down the stairs and into the arms of Spike, who had
been waiting
for her.

“Come on then, Pet.  We should be making our way back to
the hotel.  I
have a good room, nothing but the best for this you
know.”  He glanced behind him to where the Slayer, her
Watcher, her
friend the wuss, and his own soul-filled grand-sire were
watching.  He bent and kissed Willow lightly on the ear and
smiled as
she shivered in response.  He would have no problems in
seducing her once they were on her own, and she was no
longer thinking
of wolf-boy.

********
The Sunnydale Inn – Spike’s Room

He watched her face closely as he carried her over the
threshold into
his room at the Sunnydale Inn, and then carried her over
to the bed where he gently placed her down and stood in
front of her.
“I know that this isn’t exactly what you wanted, Willow.
But this has to happen.  Just forget about everything else,
and let
yourself enjoy it.”  He slowly undid his black leather
duster and
shrugged it off his shoulders, carelessly dropping it to
the floor
around his feet as he began to undo the few buttons that
remained on his red and black striped over-shirt.  Willow
couldn’t take
her eyes off him as he slowly stripped in front of her, as
though he were doing a show especially for her.  She had to
admit that
he had a great body, from what she could see, but part
of her was still afraid of the idea that she was going to
sleep with
Spike.  He had finished stripping off his over-shirt, and
then
quickly pulled his black t-shirt over his head and threw it
to the
floor.  He didn’t care that he was now standing in front of
a girl
who appeared frightened to even look at him, with very
little clothing
still clinging to his body.  “This is hardly fair, Willow.
Take
off your jacket, at least.  Please?”  He bent down and
undid the laces
on his Dockers and then toed them off, he didn’t want to
spend too much time undressing, when there was a beautiful
woman
watching him, and waiting for him to touch her, even if she
didn’t know it yet.

He watched as she slowly stood and stripped her jacket off,
she didn’t
appear to be in any hurry.  He had seen what she was
wearing when they had been in The Bronze, but now, knowing
that he was
going to see what she was wearing underneath that,
he felt an unbelievable level of arousal. The pressure in
his groin was
so strong that he couldn’t quite hold back a growl of
pleasure at the thought of being able to touch her.  He
placed his hand
over himself, partly to hide his reaction from her, but
also
to ease the pressure a little.  He so badly wanted to bury
himself
inside her that his penis was jumping in his somewhat tight
jeans.

He sat down in the plush chair in the corner of the hotel
room and
watched Willow as she made her way round the room,
picking up things that Spike had recently bought, or
unpacked from his
long-stored baggage.  He watched her face light up
when she found his portrait, a gift from Angelus, a
beautiful ink
drawing of Spike with Drusilla draped across his lap.
“Angel did
this, didn’t he?”  Spike merely nodded.  “It’s so
beautiful.  She really

does care about you.”  Willow was kind of hoping that
Spike would change his mind when she said this, and go back
to Drusilla,

it was obvious that he still loved her.

“Willow, I know that this isn’t what you want, but it has
to be done.  I

promise that I will do my best to ensure that you enjoy it,
but we need to do this.”  He could see that she was
struggling not to
cry, and although her eyes were scrunched up, a few salty
drops escaped and trickled down her pale cheeks.  “Ahh,
sweet, don’t
cry.  Please?  I can cope with almost anything except a
pissed-off Slayer, and a crying woman.”  He moved across
the room so
quickly that she didn’t even notice him until he was
holding her tightly against his chest and rubbing her back
with his
knuckles.  “I never meant to ruin anything for you, Willow.
I
am as much at the mercy of the fates as you are.”  He let
out a deep
breath, although that was no mean feat, seeing as he didn’t
actually need to breathe, yet.  “I didn’t ask for this to
happen, but we

have to make the best out of the worst.”  He slowly drew
her shirt away from her shoulders and threw it to the
floor.  He had to
smother his laughter as he noticed that she was wearing a
bra that was nothing if not functional, it was plain black
cotton, no
pattern on it, and it fastened in the front, which suited
Spike
just fine.

She was so focused on his hands touching her back and neck,
and his
fingers stroking through her hair that she didn’t notice he
had taken her shirt off, and was in he process of pulling
her pants down

about her ankles.  He kissed his way down her legs,
and then slowly eased her pants over her feet and onto the
floor.  Her
clothes were entwined with his where they lay on the
deep burgundy plush carpet, as though they were aware of
what their
owners were about to do.  He stroked his hands between
her legs, gently touching at her rose-coloured labia
through her
functional cotton panties, before pressing a finger under
the
elastic and into her tight passage.  She arched up against
him and
groaned at the pleasure his touch was lavishing upon her
passion-starved body.  Her breathing was speeding up as he
increased the

pressure between her legs.  He wanted her to feel
unbelievable pleasure before he actually placed her on the
bed and made
Willow his first human lover for over 200 years.  As
she arched up against him he could feel her ass rubbing up
against his
cock, which set it to pulsing with a feeling he hadn’t
experienced in many years, not even with Drusilla.

“This isn’t supposed to be like this.  It isn’t supposed to
be this
good.”  She could feel her insides clenching around his
finger as
he continued to thrust it inside her, twisting his finger
slightly as he

withdrew it, only thrusting it in again, harder and
further. He
could feel that she was rapidly approaching her first
orgasm, and
although he wanted it to happen, he didn’t want it to
happen
that quickly.  He turned her to face him and stroked his
free hand down
her flushed cheeks, even though he could still see the
resentment buried deep in her eyes, he could see that she
was enjoying
his tender and sometimes not so tender ministrations.

“I want to watch you cum for me, Red.  Cum all over my
hand.”  He
whispered into her ear as he nibbled on her lobe gently.

“Oh, oh God, that feels sooo good.  Don’t stop.”  Shivers
and shudders
were moving across her body, and she had lost all
control of her functions as she finally came, climaxing
with light
exploding behind her eyes.  She didn’t quite understand
what
was happening, but she knew that the way that Spike was
touching her had

something to do with it.

Spike lifted a jelly-like Willow into his arms and carried
her over to
the high bed, placing her gently on it before stripping
himself
of his jeans.  He then slowly pulled her sopping panties
down her legs,
and throwing them behind him to the growing pile of
clothes on the floor.  Her curls were damp with her dew.
He desperately

waned to bury his hard cock inside her, and feel her
muscles clench about him in pleasure.  His cock twitched as
the smell of

her arousal reached his nose.

He watched as her hands lifted to his body and slowly
stroked down his
chest, ending with her small hand fisted around his
erection, slowly pumping in a steady up and down motion.
He had to bite

back a groan as her thumb touched the tip of him,
and swiped at the pre-cum that had gathered on him.  He was
going almost

cross-eyed with pleasure, when all of a sudden she
stopped touching him, and laid back on the bed.  “Touch me,
Spike.
Teach me what I need to learn about pleasing you.”  She
looked at him, her eyes eager and willing, something he had
wanted to
see since he had discovered this strange turn that his life
was to take.

“Take off your bra.”  He sat down on the edge of the bed
and simply
watched her as, for a brief moment the self-conscious
hacker-Willow returned, but then as quickly as she had
appeared, she
disappeared, and the seductress returned.

“Do I….Am I…am I what you want?”  He could see the
self-doubt in her
eyes, and hated to see it there.  He knew that the
only thing that could be done about it was to prove that
she was exactly

what he was looking for in a woman.  He bent and
pressed a light kiss onto one of her nipples, and then
squeezed the
other between the tips of his fingers.

“You are more than just the woman I want, Willow.  You are
the woman I
am fated to be with, forever.”  He kissed her breast
lightly again, and then turned game face, and drew a little
blood.  He
felt Willow’s breathing deepen and slow down as she
struggled to continue to concentrate.  “You are lovely,
Willow.
Beautiful, caring, intelligent...”  He pressed his fingers
between
her legs, and then spread her thighs so that he could lie
between them.
He wanted the taking of her virginity to be something
that she would never forget.  He knew that it wouldn’t be
something he
would ever forget, because besides meaning that he
could touch a woman who had been on his mind for several
months, it
would also change his life forever.  When he woke up he
would be human, a living, breathing, food eating,
card-carrying human.

He moved down her body so that his head was between her
thighs, and then

he let his tongue flick out and lightly touch against
her distended clit.  She almost jumped off the bed at the
contact,
surprised that anything this naughty could feel so good.
He
curled his tongue around her clit, and sucked it deep into
his mouth,
before inserting a finger inside her tight channel and
twisting
it, increasing the pleasure that he was already inflicting
on her.  He
could feel that she was close to her second release, and he
could taste her enjoyment on his tongue as he continued to
caress her
clit, gently biting at it with his elongated canines.  “Oh,
Spike…stop, please!  I can’t cope with this.”

“That’s the idea.  I want to make you scream for me,
Willow.  You have
to enjoy this.  I want you to enjoy this as much s I
know I am going to.”  He continued to caress her, slowly
drawing out the

climax he knew she was going to shortly experience.
He moved away from her slightly, and touched her faster
with his
fingers.  He wanted to watch her face as he pleasured her.
“You are so beautiful, Willow.”  He continued to thrust his
finger in
and out of her tight passage, watching as she moved her
hips
up to meet him, and her face flushed with the expectation
of things to
come.

Something that surprised Spike was that although he already
knew she was

a virgin, she was very tight, and didn’t appear to
have had any type of contact like this with another man,
not even wuss
or wolf-boy.  The idea that he had been the only man to
see her like this was more than just a little bit arousing.
He could
feel his cock pulsing where it rubbed against the sheets on
the
bed with every move of his fingers inside her.  He didn’t
want to take
this any faster than he was, but he could hear the sound of
her blood pulsing in her veins, beating to the rhythm of a
drum calling
out to him, begging and pleading with him to touch her
deeper, and take her now.

“Spike, oh, please,” she hissed the last word, unable to
stop the
pleasure from floating round her body, igniting her blood
and
setting it on fire.  “I want…oh….I want you to….”  She
didn’t know how
to ask for what she wanted, although she knew
exactly what it was.  It was strange, considering the
intimate position
that she was in, but she was feeling rather embarrassed
about asking Spike to have sex with her.

Without knowing what she was going to say, Spike moved up
her body
again, and the started to slowly slide his cock inside her
tight channel.  He could feel her muscles clenching around
him, and had
to force himself not to climax the moment he was fully
imbedded inside her.  He had noticed the thin membrane of
her innocence
as he thrust through it, but she hadn’t noticed
anything, as though she were completely oblivious to the
pain that he
must have caused her.

As he continued to thrust within her he began to notice
some changes,
first his body was freezing, even colder than usual, then
it
started to heat up and he felt as though he were burning up
inside.  He
looked at his face in the mirror above the bed – an extra
in the honeymoon suite – and noticed that he was beginning
to sweat, and

his face was flushed.  He felt an unbelievable
satisfaction, unlike any that he had felt before.  He could
feel his sac

tightening as he continued to thrust inside her, and she
continued to tighten around his hardened member.  “Oh
Willow, that feels

soo good.”  He continued to thrust hard, and then
harder still when his sac tightened further and he came
inside her, his
warm semen flooding her hot wet pussy.  He continued to
thrust inside her as she clenched about him, and her hips
rose up to
meet his as she urged her body towards one further
orgasm.  “I’ll help you, Luv, don’t worry, we’ll get you
there.”  He
withdrew from her and flicked his finger over her clit,
then
pinched it between his thumb and forefinger and watched as
she surged
into a climax more intense than the first two.

They snuggled into each other and slowly waited for their
breathing to
return to normal.  Willow could tell that something was
different about her bed partner, but she couldn’t quite
decipher what it

was. That is until she rested her ear against his chest,
and
realised that it was rising and falling with his breathing,
and there
was a thumping echo in his chest, answering the one in her
own.  It had happened, Spike was human.

Willow didn’t know quite what to say to him now, she felt
rather
embarrassed at what they had just done together.  “Spike,
you’re human.  It worked!”  She tapped him on the shoulder,
and waited
for him to react, but he seemed to be so exhausted
that he didn’t even move a muscle to show that he had heard
what she was

saying.

Without making a sound Willow climbed out of the bed,
slowly dressed,
and left the hotel room.  She needed to get away and
think about things for a while.  She wished that she could
talk to Buffy

about all this, but she couldn’t, Buffy would never
understand, and in a way she was jealous of the fact that
her vampire
lover would never become human.  There was only one
person who knew as much about bad relationships as the
immortal in
Sunnydale, and she was the one person who would be as
likely to help Willow as Drusilla – Cordelia Chase.

She was so intent on being quiet and getting away from
Spike that she
didn’t notice as a demon of darkness slipped out of the
shadows in a nearby alleyway, and began to follow her.  “Oh
God, Oh God,

Oh God.  I slept with Spike.  How could I have
done that?”  The demon with the evil brown eyes smiled, her
vicious
sharp canines shining in the light from the moon.  So her
Spike was back in town?  And he had slept with the little
computer
girl?  How sweet she would taste when she caught her and
ate her all up like a good little daddy’s girl.  She walked
towards the Chase household, not quite sure that Cordelia would even
let her into the house, but knowing that she had to speak
to her, and quickly.
*******

The Chase House

“Willow, what are you doing here?”  Cordelia was just about to slam the
door in Willow’s face when something about her
ex-friend made her open the door wider, and pull her into the hallway.
“I think we need to talk, Willow.”  She almost ran
towards the family room, and pushed Willow into a chair as far away
from

the window as she could get.

“I just needed to talk to someone, and you seemed to be the best
person.  I don’t know why.”  Willow buried her face in her
hands, she didn’t think that she could look at Cordelia as she told her
what she had to get off her chest.

“So, you came to me?  I suppose you want advice about how to handle
Xander and his wandering hands?”  Cordelia still felt
more than just a little bitter about the Xander issue, and if Willow
wanted her advice on how to handle the idiot who had been
her best friend for over 14 years then she was in the wrong house.

“No, it’s not about Xander at all.  I just came from a hotel room where
I slept with….Oh God I can’t believe I am even saying
this to you.”  Willow looked down at her hands.

“Just spit it out, Willow.”  Cordelia didn’t know if she really wanted
to hear this, but she had to know.  “Who did you sleep
with? Oz? Was it Oz?”  Oh boy, she hoped that it was Oz, the
alternative

of Angel was just too gross to even contemplate.

“No, it wasn’t.  I slept with Spike.”  She wrinkled her brow, and
forced

back the tears that were again threatening to fall from
her eyes like a river.  She had never believed that she could do
anything so stupid, but here she was at Cordelia’s house bearing
her soul to the woman who wanted to kill her for stealing Xander away.

“Spike? As in peroxide blonde leather wearing demon Spike?  Why?”
Cordelia couldn’t just sit and listen to what Willow was
saying, when it was obvious that Willow was struggling hard not to cry
in front of her.  “Willow, did he rape you?”  Her voice
was more gentle than Willow had ever heard it before.

“No.  There’s a long story to go with all this, and I don’t even know
where to start.”

“The beginning is a good idea, Willow.  Do you want me to ring Buffy or
anyone?”  She moved over to the phone on a nearby
wooden pedestal, but was stopped by Willow’s quiet cry of protest.
“No.  They know about this!”

“It all started tonight, at The Bronze.  I had gone there to see Oz, we
were starting to work things out, and it was going quite
well, but them Spike turned up, you know, you were there.  If only you
had managed to stop him from dragging me away with
him.  The soul-mate thing that he mentioned, it was something that
would

turn him into a human, if we slept together.  Well, he’s
human now, and is probably still out of it in the hotel room, but I
just

don’t know how to start explaining my feelings.  I’m so
confused.”

“He’s human.  Uggh, the thought of that is weird, does this mean that
he

will stop trying to kill us now?”  Cordelia never thought
of anything but keeping herself out of danger, and in designer
clothing,

and although she was trying to be a different caring
person, she still had to think about herself and how all this would
effect her.

“Yeah, I just wish that something else could have changed him.  I wish
I

hadn’t had to sleep with him to change the way things
are.  How is Oz ever going to forgive me?”

“I am sure that he will understand if you explain it to him.  Just tell
him that it was fate or whatever.  So, what was it like?”
Cordelia may act like the Prom Queen from hell with a list of conquests
as long as her arm, but she wasn’t as experienced as
she liked people to believe, in fact, she was still a virgin, unlike
the

other members of the Scooby Gang, not that she hadn’t had
plenty of opportunities, but she had wanted to wait for someone
special.

“That’s just it, I can’t explain it.  On one level it was wonderful, if
I didn’t let myself think about Oz and everything.  It was
nothing like I imagined it would be, he was gentle, and seemed to
really

want to make me feel good.”  She blushed as she
realised what she had just said, but when she noticed that Cordelia was
just sitting down on the floor in front of her, her face
clearly showing her interest, Willow forgot about the embarrassment,
and

continued talking.

After an hour of talking, Willow realised that she should really go and
reassure the rest of the gang that the deed had been done,
and Spike would no longer be against them, even if he hated humans.  He
no longer had the excessive strength that the presence
of the demon had given him.  “I have to go now, Cordelia.  Xander
really

misses you, you know.  That thing between us, it
would never have worked out.”

“I’ll think about it.  Don’t tell him, but I miss him too.  Take care,
are you sure you will be okay walking?”  Sometimes Cordelia
wished that she could go back to the days when she had been completely
unaware of the existence of evil and demons in the
world, but those days were long gone, and there was no way that she
could turn back the clock – she had tried that once, and
died!

“I’ll be fine, it’s only a few blocks, and if I have trouble, there’s
always this,” she grinned as she whipped a cross and a stake
from the waistband of her jeans.  One thing that she had learned was to
never go outside after sunset unprepared for what might
come out with the intention of sucking you dry.

“Thought I might find you here, Willow, Luv.  Why did you run off like
that?”  Spike had woken to find the room empty,
Willow’s clothes gone, and for a moment he had panicked, scared that
someone had taken her, but then he had just had a
feeling, and that feeling had caused him to quickly sling on his
clothes

and rush to the Chase household.  Willow almost jumped
out of her skin as Spike’s voice came to her out of nowhere.  She had
sensed that he was somewhere nearby, but she hadn’t
realised that he was quite this close to her that she could feel his
breath on the back of her neck.

“Spike, you got what you wanted.  Please leave me alone now.  I need to
think about things for a while.”  She began to move
away when he grabbed her by the arm and spun her to face him.

“Willow, you can’t even look at me when you talk.  What we did wasn’t
so

wrong, and you enjoyed it as much as I did.”  He
didn’t like the idea that she was still afraid to be near him even
though he had proved that he would do nothing to hurt her.

“You don’t get it do you?  I was saving myself for the man I was going
to marry, and he isn’t you.  I have betrayed someone I
care about, and I don’t think I will ever forgive myself for it.”  She
rubbed her hands across her face and swallowed back a cry
of pain as she saw Oz’s trusting face behind her eyes.

“You weren’t even thinking of Wolf-boy when we were in that bed, and
you

were moaning beneath me, Willow.  What’s
suddenly brought upon all this guilt?”  He looked behind him to where
the curtain twitched in the large living room window and
saw a curious brunette poke her head around the corner.  “Or should I
perhaps say who?”  He just knew that Cordelia Chase
and her bitchy comments had some relation to the way that Willow had
suddenly changed.

“It has nothing to do with anyone else.  I just needed someone to talk
to.  It is to do with me.  Please, leave me alone.”  This
time she was able to get away from him, and had vanished into the night
before he had a chance to say anything else.  He tried
to growl, but even to his own ears it sounded pathetic and more like a
kitten than the lion he was, or rather, had been.  He
cursed the fates, but knew that someone up there must have more than a
few ideas about what they wanted with him. He knew
that more than just a little of his future depended upon Willow being
by

his side, and he wasn’t sure that she was actually going
to be there.

“By the Goddess, what am I going to tell Oz?  How is he ever going to
forgive me?”  She was mumbling to herself as she
walked up the front path to her house, and didn’t notice that she was
being followed, this time by a van.
 

The Rosenberg House

Oz didn’t know what Willow was doing out so late, but he was worried
about her.  The last time he had seen her she was being
dragged out of The Bronze by the blond vampire, Spike, and she had
looked terrified.  He hadn’t seen her since, yet when he
had seen Xander and Buffy about half hour ago they had both been more
than just a little closed-mouthed about Willow and
whether they had seen her or not.

“Willow!  Hey, hun.”  Oz jumped out of his van and rushed over to where
Willow appeared to be entirely in another world.
She was standing at her door with her key in her hand, but she was
staring at it blankly.  “Willow?  Are you all right?  You seem
strange.”  He took the key from her numb fingers and inserted it in the
lock, quickly unlocked the door and pushed it open, then
guided her into the hallway.

“Uh!  Yeah, I’m fine.”  She shook her head and summoned all her inner
strength so that she could think a little clearer.  “Oz,
what are you doing out so late?”

“I could ask you the same!”  He smiled at her, that odd questioning
smile that she had noticed when he first spoke to her on the
first day of Career Week.

“Oh, I was out at the library.”  She noticed his smile fade and his
brows move closer together as he frowned.  “Giles wanted
some help on research about some new prophecy thing.”  She watched as
the frown deepened.  “Is something wrong?”

“Willow, why lie?  I know you weren’t at the library because I was
there.  Neither Buffy nor Xander had seen you there all
evening.”  He leaned back against the door and stared at Willow as she
blushed deeply as she realised that she would have to
tell him what had happened.

Just as she thought that it couldn’t get any worse, there was a knock
on

the door.  She watched in dread as Oz opened it, and
Willow saw a peroxide blond head poke round the corner.  “Ahh, there
you

are, Luv.  I worried that you had somehow
managed to get yourself killed before you got home.”  As if he suddenly
realised they weren’t alone he looked towards Oz, a
glare of jealousy and resentment apparent on his face.  “What are you
doing here?”

“I came to check that Willow was okay.  Afterall, the last time I saw
her she was being dragged around by a psychotic killer,
namely you!”  Willow had never seen Oz like this, and she had to admit
that she admired this aspect of his character.

“I resent that, Wolf-boy.  I am no more of a psychotic killer than you
are.”  ‘Yeah, great going, Spike me boy.  He is a
werewolf, not a normal teenager.’

“I doubt that very much.  And anyhow, how come you are able to come in
here?  Don’t you have to be invited first?”  Oz didn’t
understand any of this.  There was something about Spike’s scent that
was completely unfamiliar to him.  He didn’t smell as he
usually did.  Something was going on, and he didn’t like it one bit.

“I don’t have to be invited anywhere, Wolf-boy.”  Spike grinned.  He
kind of liked the cute little name that he had come up with
for Willow’s ex-boyfriend, although it was apparent he didn’t know he
was past history yet.  What he didn’t understand was
why she hadn’t told him.

“Huh!  Willow, care to clue me in?  I thought that vampires had to be
invited into houses!”

“Yeah, well, Boy!  I ain’t no vamp anymore.”  Spike could get used to
this. He was really enjoying winding the youth up, and
from the expression on his face, it was working, and working very well
indeed.

“Spike, stop it.  He doesn’t know, okay?”  Willow took a deep breath,
and let it out slowly.  Careful that she didn’t come into
contact with either of the men standing in her hallway she walked
through the house and into the family den.  As usual her
parents weren’t home, so she could guarantee that they had complete
privacy for this conversation.  “Spike, Oz.  I want you
both to sit down, shut up and listen to what I have to say.  Any
interruptions and I will just walk out and leave you here to stew.
Is that clear?”  She sat down in the large leather winged chair that
her

father always sat in when watching Tv, and watched
Spike, and then Oz sit down, careful to avoid touching each other.

“Ok, I will start from the beginning, and I don’t want anyone to say
anything until I am finished.”  She looked down at her hands
and began fiddling with the one piece of jewellery she always wore, a
plain silver band with a carved stake on it, Xander also
had one, as did Cordelia, Giles and Buffy.  It had been her idea, the
semester after Buffy had returned home, she had wanted
something to bring them all back together again, and the idea to get
the

rings made, officially marking them as the Scooby Gang
had gone down really well.  “This isn’t going to be easy to tell you,
Oz.  And I know that you will probably hate me, but maybe
you won’t.  And maybe you will forgive me.”  She finally had the
courage

to look up at him, and saw that he was completely
confused.  His expression told her nothing at all.  She just hoped that
it didn’t change to distaste or disgust when she finally told
him what had happened.  “There was a prophecy, and I did go to the
library, but I left again, with Spike.  We went to a hotel
where we slept together.  I didn’t want to, and I regret it more than
anything, but I had to do it.  You see, Spike’s no longer a
vampire.  He’s mortal, just like me and well….me.”

“WHAT?”  Oz couldn’t believe that he was hearing this, and when no
argument came from either of the others in the room, he
knew that he had heard right.  His Willow, his beloved little witch,
had

slept with this creature – if you could even call him that –
and she had the gall to get pissy when he even looked at another of the
female sex.

“Please Oz, let me explain.  Don’t walk out, please.”  She had tears in
her eyes, and not for the first time since she had
discovered the truth about Sunnydale she felt completely helpless.  She
stood up as he moved to walk out of the room.  “I love
you, Oz.”  Tears were streaming down her face by now, and she knew that
she must look a wreck, but she couldn’t let him
think that she didn’t care about him, not when he meant everything to
her.

“I thought I loved you too, Willow, but that was before I discovered
what you really were, a vampire’s whore.”  With those as
his last words he walked out of the front door, slamming it hard behind
him.  Willow collapsed into the chair behind her, her
head in her hands, and wept for all that she had just lost.

She knew deep down that it wasn’t completely her fault, but then it
wasn’t completely anyone else’s either.  She could have run,
said no, or anything, but she had done what had been the noble thing at
the time, and sacrificed what had been building into a
strong relationship for Buffy, and her position as a member of the
Scooby Gang.

“Willow, Luv, it ain’t that bad.  Even though he thinks bad of you, the
anger will fade, and in the mean time, you have me.”  He
grinned and hunkered down beside her, one hand stroking it’s way up and
down her back in a comforting gesture, the other one
lifting her chin so that she was looking at him.

“How can you say that?  I love him, and until this, until tonight, he
loved me.  Why did I have to ruin it all?  I could have just
kept it all a secret, no one need have known about it, ever!”

“Willow, he would have found out.  There was no way you would have been
able to fake that you were still a virgin, and you
know that as well as I do.”  He continued to stroke her back, but
instead of just looking at her, he lowered his now warm lips to
hers in a soft and tender kiss, which took her breath away.  She
couldn’t believe that this was the same man who had on so
many occasions tried to kill her and her friends, he was treating her
as

though she were made of the finest crystal.

“Spike, no!  This is wrong.  I told you before.  I need time.  Please?”
She felt like she was on a rollercoaster, and there was no
way to get off.  Things had moved so fast, and the brakes had stopped
working.

“Willow, we belong together, but I’ll do what you say.  I give you 48
hours, and then I’ll come back.”  He stood up and walked
away from her, fighting hard the temptation to look back at her as he
walked out the door, and out of her life, for the next 2
days.

“Oh Goddess.  What have I done?  This is such a mess.”  She walked
slowly up the stairs to her bedroom, checking to make
sure that the doors to her balcony were firmly locked and no unwanted
guests could get in if they tried, then walking reluctantly
to her bed.  She needed to get some sleep, but at the same time was
afraid of what she would dream about when she finally
closed her eyes.

Over the other side of town Spike couldn’t sleep.  He was tossing and
turning as he struggled to keep the thoughts of his time
with Willow out of his mind.  He knew that giving her the time to think
was a wise thing, but at the same time he wanted to be
with her, comforting her as she shed the tears he was sure at that very
moment were falling from her beautiful green eyes.  He
wanted to tear out that stupid boy’s insides and display them on his
porch, but he knew that that would never do, and Willow
would never forgive him.
**********
The Next Day – The Library

“Well, was all successful, Willow?”  Giles looked up from the musty papers on his desk and stared at Willow as she
walked in the door of the library.

“Do you mean you want to know if Spike is no longer a blood sucker?”  She glared at Giles as she moved to sit behind
the computer desk and proceeded to log onto the Internet.  She really felt the need to talk to someone who wasn’t
involved in this situation in any way; maybe an online friend would be a good idea.

“Yes, although that is not quite how I would have put it, Willow.”  His eyes returned to the papers in front of him, but
he continued to wait for her reply.

“The deed was done, Giles.  So no more soulless Spike to worry about, although you may find you have a particularly
mad werewolf on the loose at the next Full Moon.”  She continued to stare at the screen in front of her although at
the memory of last night’s scene with Oz her eyes filled with tears and the screen blurred.

“I guess Oz didn’t take it too well then, Wills?”  Xander had walked into the library just in time to hear Willow’s last
comments.  Although he didn’t blame Oz for taking the news that his girlfriend had slept with another man, that she
had only been doing it to save the world should at least have made things slightly better.

“Understatement of the century I believe, Xander.  I just saw a very mad teenager in the corridor, and believe me
when I say very mad.”  Buffy sat down on a chair near to the window and stared at the forlorn expression on Willow’s
face.  She knew that there was no turning back, for any of them, but she wished that Willow hadn’t had to suffer to
save them.  “So, you told him then?  And he didn’t take it well.  His loss, Wills.”  Buffy threw her bag onto the long
table and rifled through it until she found what she was looking for, her new Mac lipstick and a small compact.
Without even bothering to look up to see the impact her words had had on her friend, she applied the pale peach
colour to her lips and then returned it to her bag.

“No, Buffy.  It’s my loss.  He won’t even look at me.  I tried to talk to him on the phone, but he slammed it down.  He
wouldn’t even let me explain.”  Willow didn’t want to cry, but she could feel the tears beginning to build behind her
eyes, and before she was able to control them, she was crying, her head buried in her hands, and her shoulders
shaking with the force of her sobbing.

“There now, Pet.  It’s not that bad.”  Spike had walked into the library and noticed Willow crying again.  Although he
had agreed not to see her for 2 days, he still had to enrol in school, and find somewhere official to live.  He thought
that as Rupert Giles was the Slayer’s Watcher he would help in any way that he could.

Buffy and Xander stood up and studied the pair sitting down at the table.  Spike looked every inch the high school
student, his peroxide blond hair slicked back with gel, and his normally leather-clad body clothed in smart almost
preppy trousers and shirt.  If he weren’t Spike he would be quite handsome.  He was touching Willow tenderly as
though he really cared about her, trying his best to comfort her.  It was quite a moving view, even though Willow was
doing her very best to move away from him.  “Let’s leave them alone, Xander.  I think that they both need to talk
some stuff over, and if we don’t hurry we’re going to be late for class.” Buffy headed out of the library with Xander
following closely behind her.

“Will she be all right there with him, d’you think?”  Xander still couldn’t get used to the idea that Spike was human,
even though he and Buffy had spoken about it for much of the evening, and for this reason was afraid that Willow
could be in some sort of danger.

“She’ll be fine with him.  He cares about her.  If you can’t see that then your last optician was blinder than you are.”
Xander looked at Buffy for a moment, then pulled open the door to their classroom and followed her into the
somewhat empty classroom.  Everyone in the room turned to look at the new arrivals, all except two students at the
back of the classroom.  Cordelia still couldn’t bear to look at Xander, and Oz couldn’t bear to look at anyone
connected with Willow, not after what he had found out yesterday.  He was still confused about what exactly had
happened the previous night, but he didn’t really want to ask anyone just yet.  “Xander, can you try and talk with Oz
at some point.  This thing has really hurt Willow.”  Buffy sat down in her usual seat near to the back of the
classroom, and focussed solely on her work, as the teacher lectured at the front of the room, occasionally writing
text on the board.

Willow didn’t want to go to classes at all, but she knew that if she was found out by Snyder she would be in more
trouble than she had ever been by getting involved in the antics of Buffy and the Scooby Gang.  “Giles, I think I
might go home.  Can you take me?”  Willow stood up and gathered her things together, only just managing to ignore the
fact that Spike was still staring at her, an expression of adoration showing clearly in his dark blue eyes.

“I…I don’t think that you should go home, Willow.  You can’t afford to miss classes this close to graduation.”

“Giles, I have all the homework, and most of it finished.  I just don’t feel well.”  She started to walk towards the
double doors, looking behind her to ensure that Giles was following her.

“All right.  I suppose that I can spare the time to drive you home, although I know that you aren’t really sick.”  He
collected his keys from the check-in counter and followed her out the door and out into the bright sunlight.
 

The Citroen

He waited until they had both got into the small Citroen that he drove and had pulled out of the campus car park to
say anything more to her.  “Willow, why are you so miserable today?  You have done everything that you were
expected to do, and everything that was supposed to happen has happened.”

“Maybe so, but I hurt.  Oz hates me, and I hate myself.  This whole thing has messed up my life.”  Willow managed
this time to fight back the urge to cry, and stared straight ahead, avoiding looking at anything.

Giles watched his young friend as she slowly walked up the path to her front door and opened it, walked through and
slammed it behind her. Apart from the one sentence where she had spoken about her shame, no to her words had
passed her lips.  Giles wanted to be able to say something comforting, but he had been unable to form any words that
might have helped her.  He would have a word with Buffy later, and get her to talk to Willow about her feelings,
maybe that would make her feel a little better about herself.
 

The Library

“Hey there G-man!  Where’s the Willster?”  Xander burst into the library hardly noticing that Giles was alone in the
library with his books.

“Uh, Xander, how many times do I have to ask you not to call me that?  Willow has gone home for the rest of the day.
She is feeling unwell, and felt that she would be better off at home.”  Giles stood up from where he had been relaxing
as much as he could, reading a book on demons and monsters from Ancient Greece, and walked across to the telephone,
just before it started to ring.  “H…Hello?  Rupert Giles speaking.”

“Hello Giles, is Buffy there yet?”  Willow, although she didn’t want to be in school today, didn’t want to be left out of
the loop in case something happened that she might be able to help with.

“Sorry, Willow.  She has gone to an extra class today.  Although I will get her to ring you when she gets here.”  Giles
looked to where Xander was frantically signalling that he wanted to talk to Willow.  For a moment he considered just
telling Willow goodbye, but then he considered the concept of peace, and handed the phone over reluctantly.

“Yo, Wills.  Whassup?”  Giles attempted to concentrate on the book in front of him, but he was constantly distracted
by the laughing coming from Xander as he continued to converse with his best friend.  Maybe it hadn’t been such a
bad idea handing the phone over to Xander afterall.  “Yeah, well.  William Hammond signed up to be in almost all your
classes today.”

“William who?  Is he another new student?”  Willow was confused, she didn’t understand why Xander was telling her
about some stranger.

“Hammond, also known as William the Bloody, and even better known as Spike.”  Giles grinned as Xander had to hold
the phone away from his ears as Willow literally screamed at him.  “Willow, there’s no need to scream.  Please?  You
are deafening me!”  He was speaking to her as he held the phone at arms length, sharing Willow’s outrage with the rest
of the library.

“Wow, what’s with all the noise?”  Cordelia walked into the library, her bag thrown casually over her shoulder, her
hair tied neatly in a chignon on top of her head.  “Is that Willow I can hear screaming from all the way out in the
hall?”  She looked at her ex-boyfriend and had to force back a grin when she noticed the way that he nodded and
continued to hold the phone away from him.  “What did you say to her to get Miss Placid so uptight?”  She moved over
to Xander, briefly rubbed her body up against his, noticing the way that he shuddered in response, and a tiny bead
of sweat formed on his upper lip, then grabbed the phone out of his numb fingers and began to talk.

Giles watched in amazement as Cordelia took over the conversation, and Willow appeared to calm down.  He wasn’t
actually paying much attention to what was being said, until he heard Cordelia bring the call to a close.  “I’ll be over
right after school, and we can talk this out.  See ya later.”  She put the phone down and then turned to face the two
amazed men in the room.  “What?”

“You were just nice.  To Willow!”  Xander voiced the view that Giles was obviously sharing when he nodded.

“So?  I’m not allowed to be nice to her because I am no longer part of the gang?”  She walked over to the door and
made her final comment. “Willow’s my friend, and someday I hope we can be friends too.”  She had a sad expression
on her face as she left the library to head for Willow’s house.
 

Sunnydale High Gymnasium

“So, you think you can take me on eh?”  Buffy looked at the man who had hurt her friend so much, and got the urge to
flatten him without giving him the chance to fight back, but she knew that she had to keep up the image of a girlie
girl, rather than an all-powerful superhero Xena-like Slayer.

“With pleasure, Slayer.  At least I know you can’t stake me, now.  I am one of those you have to protect, even from
Powder-Puff!”  He smirked when he saw the fury in her expression.  He wanted to get this confrontation over and
done with so that he could go and attempt once more to get Willow to listen to him.

“I…Told…You…Not…To…Call…Him…That!”  She punctuated each of her words with a sharp hard punch into his gut,
causing him to double over in an effort to protect himself from further blows.

“All right…All right!  I give up.  I won’t call him Powder-Puff anymore, I’ll stick with Peaches!”  He moved away from
her, almost staggering in an effort to escape from any further blows she might deal out.

“Spike, he has a name.  If you are going to talk about him, use it!”  She walked away from him then, she needed to get
to the library and see if Giles had any jobs for her to do before she went out on a patrol and then headed for The
Bronze for a night of partying with her fave friends.
**********

The Rosenberg House – Willow’s Bedroom

“Did you see Oz today?”  Willow was carefully studying her nails, which
Cordelia had just painted a raisin red, as she asked the
question.

“Yeah, he didn’t seem too happy.  I gather he knows about the you and
Spike in bed together thing!”  No matter that she
understood, Cordelia was still Miss Lacking-in-Tact of Sunnydale ’99.

“Yes, he…we spoke last night.  He hates me now.”  Willow noticed an
interesting pattern on the carpet made by some long
forgotten soda that Xander had probably spilt, and began to pick at it.

“Willow, he was sure to take it badly, anyone would, but I am sure,
given time, that he will forgive you, or at least give you the
chance to explain everything.  He may even listen!”  Cordelia continued
to paint Willow’s toenails, with the matching colour she
had on her own, a vibrant blue that matched Spike’s eyes.  “There you
go.  All finished!”  She put the final stroke over Willow’s
nails, and then turned on the hairdryer, blowing slightly cooled air
over the wet lacquer.

“They look cool, thanks Cordy.”  She looked at her nails and smiled, the
first time really since the whole mess had started the
previous day.  “I wonder if Oz is home from practice yet!”  She looked
thoughtfully at her phone and shook her head.  Ringing
him now wouldn’t be such a good idea, she didn’t want to hear the click
as he slammed the phone down on her again.  Just the
memory of the betrayed look on his face yesterday was enough to send
spasms of pain through her body, causing her to shake.

“Don’t let it get to you like this.  He isn’t worth it.  No man is!”
With those words of wisdom Cordelia walked over to her bag
where she had thrown it when she had arrived earlier and rummaged
through it until she found the bottle she had been looking
for.  “What we need is some fun, Willow.  And I have just the thing!”
She lifted the bottle she had been holding up to the light
and showed Willow the surprise she had garnered from her parent’s liquor
cabinet, a prime bottle of the best Scotch Whiskey.
“Welcome to the World of Cordelia Chase, where no man is good enough to
keep, and all you really need is a bottle of
booze.”  Cordelia twisted the cap, effectively opening the bottle, took
a long swig and then handed it over.  “Come on, drink
up.  Forget everything!”

Normally Cordelia didn’t allow anyone to see this side of her, but she
had realised on the drive over that Willow probably
needed this more than she ever had.  First she had been dragged away
from her boyfriend only to be told that she was destined
to mate with a vampire, and then her boyfriend found out and dumped
her.  She looked at Willow and noticed that she had
spluttered a little, sending little droplets of the amber liquid into
Cordelia’s hair, but this didn’t really bother her at the moment.
Cordelia was on a mission, she intended to cheer Willow up, and from the
somewhat vacant look on the red-head’s face she
was succeeding.

“This is good stuff, Cordy.  Do you have anything else to make me feel
better?”  Willow’s speech was already a little slurred,
but this didn’t deter Cordelia from nodding, returning to her bag and
producing a small bottle of Jose Cuervo Gold.  “Oh
goody, quetila!”  Willow attempted to stand, which was no mean feat, but
when she finally managed it she staggered and ended
up back on the floor, the whiskey bottle in one hand and a drunken grin
on her face.

“I thought that we could do shots!”  Willow hadn’t noticed, but Cordelia
had also bought a pair of silver shooters with her.  She
proceeded to fill them with the golden coloured liquid, and when this
was done, handed one to Willow, who had by now
finished much of the whiskey on her own.  Cordelia wasn’t drunk, but
then, Cordelia never got drunk, she had an image to
uphold!  “One…Two…Three!”  Both the girls downed their shots and then
slammed the shooters back on the floor.

Willow was by now beginning to feel more than just a little woozy, and
thought that she should lie down, but when she did the
room began to spin, and she felt like she was going to throw up.  She
sat up quickly, but the spinning feeling didn’t immediately
disappear.  “Willow, are you okay?  You look a little bit green if you
know what I mean.”  Cordelia was starting to feel
concerned.  She had only brought the drinks over because she thought
that they might make Willow open up a bit, she hadn’t
realised that Willow would think of this as a way to escape and drink
way more than she should!

“I feel a little bit sick, Cordy.  Make it go away!”  She staggered to
her feet and then slowly made her way to the bathroom, she
felt the need to make close acquaintance with the Porcelain Goddess.

Cordelia watched as Willow got rid of all the alcohol, and much of the
food she had eaten for the last week, maybe two
weeks.  She stayed in the prone position in front of the toilet for more
than 20 minutes before Cordelia got a little worried and
decided that maybe there was more to her drunken sickness than she had
at first thought.  She walked into the bedroom,
picked up the oddly shaped telephone and dialled the number for the
library.  Giles was an adult, he would know what was the
best thing to do.  “Hello, Giles, it’s Cordelia.  I’m at Willow’s, and I
think she may be sick, really sick!”

“What do you mean, really sick?  Has she a temperature?  A virus?”

“No, nothing like that.  I thought that maybe she could do with a drink!
I didn’t realise that she would drink the whole bottle!”
Cordelia began to panic when she continued to hear the sound of dry
retching coming from the direction of Willow’s bathroom.

“You got her drunk?”  Giles didn’t need to hide his anger, “that was
such a stupid thing to do!”

“Who got who drunk, Giles?”  Buffy asked as she walked into the
library.  She had just returned from her patrol, and was
already changed ready to hang out with her pals at The Bronze.

“Cordelia thoughtfully got Willow drunk, and now she’s ill!”

“Way to go, Cordelia!”  Buffy punched her hand in the air, her voice
filled with sarcasm, but she ceased after receiving a look of
warning from Giles’ direction.

“Wait there, Cordelia.  Buffy and I will come and help you take Willow
to the hospital.  I am of course presuming that you are
able to drive?”

“Uh…Well…I had two drinks, but I feel okay!”  Cordelia looked nervously
at a pale Willow who had managed to stagger
unaided into the bedroom before collapsing on the floor beside her bed.

“I will take that as an ‘I can’t drive, Giles’, then shall I?”  He
sighed, exasperated.  The messes these girls got themselves into.
Giles hung up before he could hear any excuses from Cordelia.  He had a
feeling that Willow may well be suffering from alcohol
poisoning, and in that case she would need urgent medical treatment.

“Seems like we’re in for a visit to the emergency room, Buffy, although
this time it isn’t you that needs the treatment, or you that
has done something stupid!”  He collected his keys and for the second
time in less than 12 hours headed for the Rosenberg
household.

“Is Willow hurt?”  Buffy couldn’t keep the concern from her voice.  She
had known that Willow was feeling very fragile, but the
idea that she could hurt herself was unimaginable.

“She is suffering from a major case of over-drinking.”  Giles
concentrated on driving his old car down the road to Willow’s
house, all the while worse-case-scenario’s were filling his mind.

“Oh, she will be feeling so majorly rough at school tomorrow!”  Buffy
immediately calmed, realising that Willow had merely
done what every teenager did once in their lives, drinking way too much
alcohol.  In Buffy’s eyes it was merely a stage of
experimentation, and this one lesson would be the only one she needed.

“Yes, well.  All we have to worry about at the moment is that she is
actually well enough to attend school tomorrow.  From
what Cordelia has said she is really feeling ill at the moment.”  Giles
pulled to a stop outside Willow’s house, just in time to see
her throw up on the lawn just outside her front door.  Cordelia was
looking at her, clearly worried at the state she was in.

“Oh, thank God you’re here, Giles.  She has been like this since before
I phoned you.  She can’t even keep down the water
that I gave her.”

“You didn’t give her anything else did you?  Like Midol or Tylenol?”  He
looked at where Willow was almost lying pathetically
on the ground, and winced.  She looked extremely pale and her eyes,
normally a deep green were red-rimmed and bloodshot.

“No, of course not.  Do I look stupid to you?”  Cordelia was incensed
that Giles would even think that she would try and kill
Willow by giving her such a lethal mix of alcohol and even mild
painkillers.

“I don’t know, Cordelia.  You are the one who helped to get her this
drunk in the first place!”  Giles knew that he had hit the
mark when she winced and stepped away from him slightly.

“At least I didn’t invoke a demon that tried to kill us all!”  Cordelia
was clutching at straws, she really hadn’t meant to mention
the incident with Eyghon, but something inside her had forced her into
it – and she would insist that under oath.

“Yes…Well.  I think we should get Willow to the hospital, what do you
think?”  With the help of Buffy and Cordelia, Giles
managed to carry a very weak Willow over to his car, and get her into
the cramped back seat.  Cordelia sat beside her,
cradling her head in her lap, and once in a while stroking Willow’s hair
away from her face.

Both Giles and Buffy looked at Cordelia, for the second time that
evening that Giles had witnessed, Cordelia was behaving as
though she actually cared about someone other than herself.
*****